Sorry your browser is not supported!

I made a pretty cool water decal today, but the sad thing is that I dont know how to make it transparent? I tryed to set the Transp. to both 1 & 2.. Shorld I save the dds file with a background or something like that? Im really new to this... (If I can make it work I will give the decal to the community for free.)

default transperant color is RGB 0,0,0

now,that should help.

Yes I know... But do I change the texture or the fpe script? By the way I use the dxtbmp converter to create the dds files... Does it matter what kind of dds file I make?

use alpha channels with photoshop or dtxbmp, dtxbmp = free, it's really useful, there was a tutorial around here in the forums about making custom huds and the guy gave a good tutorial about using it

Mr. Love,

I suggest you create an alpha channel for the water texture.

i.e. RGB 128,128,128 (grey) for a 50% transparency

And Yes depending on which programe you use then it may matter how you save out the file. I dont know the program you are using. Some have only one choice for export to .dds - others may have support for multiple .dds file output format options.

As long as you get the alpha channel set up then a couple of tests should soon find the best export options if you have any choice if you find it dont work correctly the first attempt.

After you have saved the file with alpha channel just place it in the correct folder location as is and reference it in the .fpe script file and test run the level. If you dont see the transparency - try right click entity and go into 3D inspect mode and in the transparency setting for the entity enter the value 2.

Test run level and if the transparency still dont show exit and open the entity .fpe and insert appropriately in the transparency field the value of 2 or if none exists then add in the
;visualinfo section :

transparency =2

Test level again.

One of those methods should do it.

If not then the alpha channel is probably not saved out correctly as FPSC wants to read the info.

You could then try saving out your image that you made with alpha channel as a .PNG which should imbed the alpha channel and info into the texture file permanently, change the tex ref in the .fpe and see if that version will work.

PNG work sometimes on some entities not so well on others.

I use .dds and have rarely had any transparency probs though on the one or two occasions I have then .PGN have worked successfully.

Overall I have never failed one way or another to get a successful transparency on any entity I have applied them to.

Transparency setting of 1,2 and 4 I have used for different circumstances on different entity types.

A setting of 2 works for almost all object types a setting of 4 on some objects seems to make them completely invisible.

Hope that helps a little.

I did the trick uman! At first I tryed a grey 128,128,128 alpha texture, but it didnt work....
But when You wrote this I started to understand what I did wrong:

"And Yes depending on which programe you use then it may matter how you save out the file."

Well, so I tryed to save it as dds 3, and it worked fine! And as I promised I will make this decal FPSC ready and give it away for free, now it looks so mutch better thanks to uman...
Thanks uman!!!

Glad you got it to work.

I am no expert regarding image file formats but as I understand the ones in question - it may be useful to consider that the alpha channels in .dds in some progs can be output chosen as 8 bit, 1 bit and so on - there may bo other settings to choose from as well.

The programme defults are always best to try first as they will usually meet with most needs. If that dont work tweak one setting at a time and test and you should get a result.

We all know transparency works in FPSC on almost any entity and you can get good quality on graduated tone alpha's with no need for any signs of black edges and so on - so its just a matter of not giving up and changing file settings or the alpha channel artwork until you get it right.

And as I promised they are now ready to be downloaded from model & media.. I thought it wourld be boring with just one decal, so I made three of them! Can someone tell Me if they works ok. I uploaded them from My Mac so I need to know.. (Else I can send the decals as pictures...)